Back in October, we released a hard cider. Real simple recipe: Guy out in western mass presses locally grown chef's apples, pasteurizes the juice, ships it to us in tanker trucks, we add our house ale yeast and that's it.
Now since we just had employee beer buy, I got a case of the cider for next to nothing. Having loved my last batch of apfelwein and hated my sampling of woodchuck, I was nervous about this stuff since I have to try selling it at work and I dont like lying.
Visual: It looks like sparkling apple juice. Its filtered after fermentation so cider is really a misnomer (to be nitpicky)
Aroma: Slight tartness, but not much aroma to be taken in (at least compared to our beers)
Body: Perfect balance of carbonation within the juice. It has a light and crisp mouthfeel with just a hint of effervescence.
Taste: The cider rolls over the tongue going from a slight sweetness to a more pronounced tartness. You can tell the apples that went into this are a blend of different types of apples but overall a really nice crisp balance between tart and sweet. It doesnt have any other sugar or anything, just fermented apple juice and a light carbonation.
My fridge tends to freeze stuff when its put too far back, and some of the ciders suffered this fate. I poured a half-cider half-slush with a couple bottles last night and it was really enjoyable. Given the heat we have been experiencing over the past week, I might do this on purpose as a hard slush of sorts.
If you like a nice crisp hard cider, try Harpoon. Its really simple and refreshing
Harpoon Cider
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